France’s Hollande says will not seek re-election

December 2, 2016 6:30 am

By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Paris, France, Dec 2 – French President Francois Hollande dramatically announced Thursday he would not seek re-election next April at the end of his five-year term as he bowed to historic low approval ratings.

The withdrawal means the 62-year-old Socialist will be the first president of France’s fifth republic, founded in 1958, to quit after just one term.

“I have decided that I will not be a candidate,” Hollande said in a solemn televised address from the Elysee Palace in Paris.

He conceded he had failed to rally his deeply divided Socialist party behind his candidacy and keep a promise to slash unemployment, which hovers at around one in 10 of the workforce.

“In the months to come, my only duty will be to continue to lead my country,” he said.

The Socialist leader has some of the lowest approval ratings for a French president since World War II.

The revelations led to the break-up of Hollande’s relationship with partner Valerie Trierweiler who went on to write an eviscerating book which claimed the president mocked poor people as “the toothless”.

– A mixed legacy –

Hollande listed his achievements on Thursday night, saying he had worked to “get France back on track and make it more fair” through reforms to the economy, social security and education.

He pointed to a global accord on climate change signed in Paris last year as part of his legacy, as well as his handling of the terror attacks when he had sought to heal and comfort a wounded country.

He also brought in gay marriage in 2013.

On unemployment — which Hollande had promised to roll back before the election — he admitted that “the results are coming, later than I had promised them, but they are there.”

Hollande’s decision came on a day when the left-leaning Le Monde newspaper delivered a withering assessment of his time in office.

Le Monde wrote in an editorial that he had “not given a meaning to his time in office, occupied the job with authority or imposed himself as the legitimate candidate for his party.”

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Agence France-Presse is a global news agency delivering fast, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from wars and conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology.